Feast Meets West is a celebration of Asian culture through the lens of food. We are a platform for socializing the diversity of the Asian experience, sharing the history of iconic dishes to the underrepresented foods, and amplifying the voices of the passionate people in the world of Asian food.

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Jun 9 All aBao the Bao

We're so excited to launch Feast Meets West with our pilot episode on the Bao! We dissect the history and food trend that is the gua bao (aka Taiwanese pork buns) popularized by David Chang's Momofuku.

Quick definition: "bao" is a general term in Chinese cuisine for steamed buns. You may have heard of bao zi, man tou, or xiao long bao which are all in the Chinese bun family. The gua bao is a specific type of steamed pork bun from Taiwan (though, originally from Fujian). Thanks to NYC restaurants like Momofuku and Eddie Huang's Baohaus, the gua bao became internationally famous and is often referred to just as "bao".

In this episode, Lynda records a live tasting at Baoburg in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, NYC and Iris interviews chef/restaurant owner May Chow of Little Bao, Hong Kong.

"It's harder to do Asian food in Asia because you have to answer to say, my mom or your mom or people who are Chinese. And they look at your product and are like, that's for white people." - May Chow on being a Western-influenced chef in Asia.

Remember to listen to the end of the episode for Lynda's mildly inappropriate comparison of the bao to a certain part of female anatomy. (.)(.)

Thank you so much for checking out our pilot episode and bearing with a couple sound quality issues ... and the fact that we forgot the plural of phenomenon is phenomena, not phenomenons, oops! We would LOVE your feedback so please do rate us on iTunes and contact us through email, Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you think.